The Only One Left
by ReKoJ
Summary: Dean's luck finally runs out.


The Only One Left

Fandom: Supernatural

Pairing: None

Sam sat in the waiting room tapping out a nameless tune on his knee. He was never good at waiting that had been Dean's department. Dean always knew what needed to be done and how they were going to do it. But when it was Dean that needed to be waited for what else was there to do?

As each minute passed Sam became more anxious. Dean had been in surgery for almost 12 hours. Sam didn't want to leave the hospital incase something happened. All the nurses that passed him as they walked by wore identical looks of pity. Every so often one of them would offer him a cup of coffee or ice water. He didn't want ice water but he always welcomed the caffeine. At that time the only thing keeping him from falling over was the overdose of caffeine in his system. He thought it was sort of funny. Usually he had problems falling asleep; now he was using coffee to stay awake. He thought it was kind of hard to ignore the irony of that.

Finally a doctor emerged out of the Operating Room and walked towards Sam. Sam stood up and met the doctor half way.

"How is he?" Sam was dreading the answer but he wanted to know. He knew that even if he hadn't asked the doctor would have told him anyway.

"The surgery as far as we can tell was a success. Your brother had major damage done to his spinal column. We won't know the extent of the damage until he regains consciousness."

Sam stared uneasily at the doctor as he processed all that had been said. He had a gut feeling that something wasn't right. There was something that the doctor wasn't telling him. "He's going to be all right though?"

"Like I said, we won't know much of anything until he wakes up. You should face the fact that he might have lost use of his legs. The anesthetic should wear off pretty soon, you can wait in his room if you like."

"Sure." Sam followed the doctor to Dean's room.

Dean opened his eyes and blinked in the light. It was such a contrast to where he had spent the last few days. He and Sam had been hunting down a vengeful spirit in Tampa Bay, Florida. They had put the spirit to rest but not before Dean got an entire shelving unit complete with cement blocks knocked on to him. The last thing that he remembered was that part of his back and legs were numb.

Now as he looked around he guessed that he was in the hospital. There were machines hooked up to him and the door to the bathroom was closed. A few minutes later the door opened and Sam stepped out.

"Hey Dean."

"Hey Sammy."

Sam smirked. Normally he would have given Dean shit for calling him Sammy but this was different. He had almost lost Dean back there. He figured that Dean could get away with calling him Sammy for a while.

Sam reached over and pressed the call button. The sooner they figured out exactly what was going on with Dean the sooner they could figure out their next move.

The doctor came in. Sam didn't know if it was a good sign that it was the same doctor that had operated on Dean or not. The first thing that the doctor did was have Dean move his fingers, follow the pen with his eyes, say his name and the name of his brother.

"Okay good. Bend your knees for me."

Dean tried but the signals weren't getting there. He breathed and tried again. Still there was nothing. Sam held Dean's other hand when he realized that his brother couldn't move his legs.

"I can't move them." His eyes were big. There was a shaky quality to Dean's voice. Sam knew that Dean was getting scared and he couldn't come up with some smart-ass remark.

"Don't worry Mr. Winchester. We'll schedule you for an MRI and x-ray. It could be temporary or something more serious. We aren't going to jump to any conclusions until we know for sure what's going on."

When the doctor left Dean looked at Sam. "If I'm paralyzed I want you to leave."

Sam shook his head. "No way. I didn't leave any of the other times that other people would have given up. I'm not leaving now. If you're paralyzed we'll deal with it."

By the end of that day Dean had been sent home. The painful truth was that the damage done to his spinal cord had been stabilized by the operation but could not be corrected. He was permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

They were back at the Motel where their misfortune with the vengeful spirit had started. Sam had carried his brother in and laid him on the bed. He covered him up and sat on the edge of the bed.

Dean wanted Sam to leave. He wanted to be left alone. A hunter wasn't any good unless he could hunt. Dean was wishing that Sammy would take his advice and leave. He found it infuriating that Sam was sitting there, looking out the window and refusing to speak.

"Sam, you gotta go."

Sam shook his head. "I told you at the hospital I'm not leaving you."

"Sam I know it's not easy. I know you don't want to leave but you have to. You said yourself; Dad's legacy is us. Well, now I can't hunt anymore and if the positions were reversed I'd leave. I expect you to do the same."

Sam knew that this was just more of Dean's macho "I can take care of myself" bullshit. The fact was that Dean was scared and didn't want Sam to leave. It was true that their hunting careers were probably over. Sam had no intention of leaving his brother.

"Dean I can see right through you. I know that if the positions were reversed you wouldn't leave. I'm not going anywhere. The demon can wait. He'll be around long after this."

Dean shrugged. "At least things can't get any worse right?"

Sam smiled. "Right. Well it looks like we live a normal life for awhile."

He drove them to the next town. He got a job at a near by café as a waiter. As far as anyone knew he was a young man who worked to support himself and his paralyzed brother.

For a while things were fine.

Two months later Dean was eating his comment about how things couldn't get worse. It had started with a burning in his chest. He tried to tell Sam but he couldn't breathe very well. Sam (who had already been up) drove him to the hospital.

When they arrived at the hospital Dean was rushed to the emergency Room and then in ICU. He was put on a ventilator and a compressor.

Once again Sam waited nervously in the waiting room trying not to panic and imagine the worst. After what seemed like forever (it had actually only been a couple of hours) a doctor came out.

"Sam Winchester?"

Sam stood up. "Is he okay?"

The doctor stuck his hands in his pockets. "He's stabilized. Dean has a rare case of paralysis. It's only the second recorded case of its kind. Dean has Active Paralysis."

"Which means?"

"His body is turning against itself. His immune system is attacking the cells that are keeping him alive. He's killing himself. There's no cure for this condition and its quick. I give him a week at most. I'm sorry."

Sam forced himself to focus. Dean had always been there for him and now it was his turn to try and protect his brother. He felt drugged as he forced himself to walk to Dean's room. When he got there a nurse was adjusting his blanket.

"You're Sam right?"

"Yeah." He looked at Dean. He was lying there, his hands at his sides and his eyes slightly closed.

"We have to keep his trachea inflamed but he can mouth words and write."

As she left the only thing that Sam could think of was that soon he wouldn't be able to do that anymore. Dean pointed to a piece of paper that had some writing on it. Sam picked it up.

This time there is nothing you can do. I'm going to die and you can't stop it. Leave town. Hunt things. Kill things. Leave me here. Nurses hot, things are fine. Take care of MY car or I'll haunt your ass. That's funny.

Sam couldn't believe that Dean actually wanted him to leave. He knew that Dean was right. He had escaped death a few too many times, his luck was running out.

"Dean I can't leave you here. I can't do this on my own."

Dean nodded at Sam. He knew that Sam was a lot stronger than he thought. When push came to shove he knew that Sam would do the right thing.

Sam spent most of that day at the hospital. He made himself promise that he wouldn't decide what to do until he knew how fast Dean's health was deteriorating. When by midnight Dean couldn't feel his hands Sam knew what he had to do.

Sam spent the whole night awake and worrying about what he had to do the next day. Dean had told him (by mouthing the words, his hands were useless now) that it would be a mercy killing. Dean also told him that he didn't want to live like that.

Sam arrived at the hospital early the next morning. He was prepared to do what he had to. His heart dropped when he realized that Dean couldn't even hold up his own head. He closed the door and unplugged the machines that were keeping his brother alive. He knew that he was doing what Dean wanted. It hurt him to see his brother suffering like that. It was hard to believe that there was a time when they thought they would be there for each other forever.

As the last machine was unplugged Sam held Dean's hand. He leaned over and whispered, "Don't be afraid. It'll be okay. I love you." Dean's eyes grew wide and then his body went limp.

Sam cut a few of the wires in a couple of the machines. He cut them in a way that suggested wear and tear. He felt in his pocket for his brother's ring and necklace. Once he was sure that he had both objects he plugged the machines back in and retrieved one of the on-call doctors.

Sam got into the Impala and drove away. He tried to put as many miles as he could between himself and his brother's body. His father was dead and now so was his brother. He was the only Winchester left. He headed in the direction of Ellen's Roadhouse. His plan was to rest up for a few days and then go hunting. He pitied whatever supernatural being met him on that hunt; he was going to make it suffer.

Ellen knew something was wrong when Sam came in without his brother. He put enough money on the table for a bottle of whiskey and a room.

"Sam is everything okay?" She knew that it wasn't because he looked like he had been crying.

"Yes ma'am. Wake me up when the money runs out." He took the key that she handed him and went upstairs. She ignored the crying that she heard later that night.

Sam was gone and had been for a few hours. The key to the room was on the bar so she figured he was done with it. When she went up to clean the room she noticed that something had been scratched into the wood of the doorframe.

R.I.P

D.W

1980-2006

The End


End file.
